More than 2 million Americans suffer from atrial fibrillation, a condition that causes an erratically beating, racing heart. The thoracic and cardiovascular team at Shands at UF has been trained in procedures used to relieve atrial fibrillation.

Learn more about:

• Abnormal Heart Rhythms
• Treatment
• Shands at UF Difference

About Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is a disorder that causes the heart’s two small upper chambers to quiver at 300- to 600-times-a-minute. This rapid heartbeat leaves patients short of breath, dizzy, and fatigued. Though it is not a heart attack, the condition can lead to stroke.

Treatment

Learn more about the Mini-Maze and watch a video about the procedure.

Listen as Dr. Thomas Beaver, UF cardiovascular surgeon, discusses the Mini Maze procedure.

The thoracic and cardiovascular team at Shands at UF offer a procedure to treat atrial fibrillation called the Maze procedure, which creates barriers to the electrical pathways in the heart’s upper chambers, the atria.

Maze involves creating multiple cuts into the atria muscle in an intricate pattern, or maze, and then stitching the incisions together to produce scars. Because the scars do not carry electrical signals, they interfere with stray electrical impulses that cause atrial fibrillation. As a result, the heart returns to its regular, coordinated beat.

More recently, new technology is making the Maze procedure faster, safer and less invasive. Because of this move to minimally invasive procedures, the newer procedure is called “Mini-Maze". Now, surgeons create small incisions between the ribs and insert a radio-frequency clamp on the heart. Energy from the clamp forms the scar tissue that blocks the erratic electrical pulses.

The Shands at UF Difference

Shands at UF is a leader in diagnosing and treating patients with heart arrhythmias, and the thoracic and cardiovascular team is involved in the research and use of new methods for the Maze procedure.

Information

For more information about Shands at UF Heart Care or to schedule a new patient appointment, please call 800.749.7424 or 352.265.0943.

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Make an Appointment

To make a new patient appointment or find out more information about heart care services offered at Shands at the University of Florida, please call 352.265.0943 .

You may also email our Consultation Center (consult@shands.ufl.edu) or use our secure online form.